Just in: What Department of Defense says about Florida meteor

Update 9:30 a.m.: The Department of Defense says the object that blew through Earth’s atmosphere over Florida this week wasn’t man-made.

Dozens of Florida residents reported seeing the bright ball shoot through the sky and break into pieces before midnight Tuesday.

NASA said it didn’t appear to be traditional space rock.

But Department of Defense spokesman Jamie Davis said the object wasn’t one of more than 23,000 cataloged pieces of space junk tracked by DOD. That catalog is publicly available here.

“This service – the tracking and listing of objects in space – is a key element of our commitment to provide space situational awareness for spaceflight safety and transparency in this domain,” the DOD said in a statement.

Previous story: A meteor streaked across South Florida Tuesday night, captured in a deputy’s dashboard camera and reported by dozens of people to the American Meteor Society.

But NASA says it may not have been a traditional space rock and suggested the Department of Defense may know more.

Storm 2016

About the Author

Kim Miller is the weather reporter for The Palm Beach Post.

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